


Nimble Fingers

by ArgyleMN



Series: Bryce Lahela/Cassie Vanderfield - Canon Universe One Shots [1]
Category: Open Heart (Visual Novels)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:27:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24483511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArgyleMN/pseuds/ArgyleMN
Summary: Cassie bumps into Bryce in her apartment for an unexpected reason. Set around Chapter 7 of Open Heart book 1.
Relationships: Bryce Lahela/Main Character (Open Heart), Sienna Trinh & Main Character (Open Heart)
Series: Bryce Lahela/Cassie Vanderfield - Canon Universe One Shots [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1768597
Kudos: 8





	Nimble Fingers

Cassie felt _disgusting_. Her face was oily, her hair was greasy, and she knew she smelled like some awful blend of sweat and the hospital. And while she’d dumped her nasty scrubs in the laundry bin in the locker room, her tank top, underwear, and socks couldn’t get into her hamper quickly enough.

It was her first 28 hour shift ever. In med school, she’d had a couple of 24 hour shifts, but those extra 4 hours were brutal. Actually, it was closer to 6 extra hours, but Cassie knew she would fudge that so she wouldn’t get flagged for a duty hours violation and have to meet with Dr. Hudges. Elijah warned her about that after he recorded his hours a little too accurately. Regardless, it was close to noon and all she could think about was crawling into bed. 

She walked down the flight of steps as she entered their building, drudging down the plain hallway before she unlocked the door to their apartment. She was immediately greeted by the smell of something sweet baking in the oven and Sienna’s laughter. Cassie raised her hand, hoping for just a quick hello before she crashed, but was surprised that Sienna wasn’t laughing at something Elijah, Jackie, or Landry had said. Instead, she was sitting cross-legged on the couch with Bryce, a pair of knitting needles in each of their hands and a pile of various colors of balls of yarn on the coffee table in front of them.

“What are you doing here?”

“Well, hello to you too,” Bryce replied, not taking his eyes off his hands as he wrapped the green yarn around one of his needles.

“Yeah, hello. What are you doing here?”

“He asked me to teach him to knit,” chimed in Sienna.

“Why?” asked Cassie, rubbing her eyes. She was so exhausted and this whole thing seemed so strange, she half felt like she was hallucinating.

“Aren’t you just a ray of sunshine on this fine Saturday?” said Bryce, still focused on his project.

“She just got off a 28 hour shift,” explained Sienna.

Bryce finally paused his knitting at that, looking up at Cassie for the first time. She felt very subconscious about her appearance. She and Bryce had hooked up a few times at this point, and while she didn’t always look hot at the end of a shift, she knew this was a whole different level of ugly. The only saving grace was that Bryce was halfway across the room and probably couldn’t smell her at the moment.

But Bryce had no reaction to her appearance, at least not one he let on. Instead, he looked her straight in the eyes as he asked her, “First one?” Cassie merely nodded, hoping to end this conversation quickly and head to shower and then her bed. But Bryce smirked and kept the conversation going.

“They say you never forget your first,” he said with a wink. Cassie shook her head slightly, a smile creeping onto her face no matter how fatigued she was. Sienna was either oblivious to Bryce’s innuendo or was choosing to ignore it, merely checking the evenness of her last few stitches in the sweater she was making for Wayne before she leaned over to check Bryce’s work. “You’re really getting the hang of it!”

“Of course I am. My hands are spectacular. Isn’t that right, Cassie?”

Cassie’s eyebrows shot up as her tired brain raced to try and come up with an appropriate retort. Flirty, teasing banter was nothing new for them, even if this one did imply a bit more first-hand knowledge than usual. Normally, Cassie would be able to dish it back, but right now, she was drawing a blank. She blamed sleep deprivation.

“Why would Cassie have anything to say about your hands?” asked Sienna. Her question was a naive one, but the glint in her eyes implied that it was anything but innocent, and as she glanced between Bryce and Cassie, it was clear that she knew _exactly_ what she was doing. It also made Cassie wonder how much her roommates knew about her and Bryce, but that was a topic for later, when she wasn’t ready to crawl into bed.

“Oh, you know, because she’s consulted on some of my post op patients.” Bryce said with another wink to Cassie before returning to his knitting.

“Uh huh,” said Sienna as she rolled her eyes, but before she could push the topic, Bryce redirected the conversation.

“I’m ready to switch colors, I think.” 

Sienna leaned over, counting his rows before picking up the grey yarn off the coffee table. “Yeah, that’s a good stripe width for a scarf. So, what you need to do is drop the green, and then I’ll get you started with the next stitch with the grey, okay?”

Sensing an opportunity to sneak away and get cleaned up before she went to bed, Cassie turned and headed down the hallway towards the bathroom, barely noticing Sienna and Bryce calling out, wishing her “Goodnight” in spite of it being the middle of the day.

Twenty minutes later, Cassie blissfully climbed into her bed, not caring that her pillow was going to be soaking wet from her hair. Her sleep was deep and wonderful, not even the bright light pouring through her blinds impacting her ability to finally get some rest. Hours later, Cassie awoke to a light tapping on her door. She contemplated ignoring the noise, rolling over and going back to sleep, but a quick glance at the clock convinced her that she should get up, at least for a few hours, maybe get something to eat.

“Cassie, are you still asleep? I wanted to see if you were hungry. I’m making stir fry for dinner if you want some,” Sienna softly spoke through the door. Sure enough, Cassie could smell something delicious wafting into her room. So she pulled on her robe and joined Sienna at the table, grabbing a plate and loading it with rice, chicken, and vegetables.

It was just her and Sienna at dinner that night, both Jackie and Landry working and Elijah out with Phoebe and some of her friends on something he had insisted wasn’t a date. At first they ate in a comfortable silence, but eventually Sienna spoke.

“Bryce is really nice.”

Cassie cocked her eyebrow at Sienna as she took another bite. Sienna blushed slightly, “I obviously don’t mean for me. It’s just, I hadn’t really spent much time one-on-one with him, but I like him. For you, I mean.”

Cassie shook her head. “We aren’t dating, Sienna.”

“Well regardless of whatever is going on between you two, I just wanted to say he’s a good guy. He’s much kinder than the rest of the surgeons, and he was surprisingly easy to teach for someone with that much confidence.”

“Why did he want to learn how to knit, anyway?”

“He told me he thought it would improve his dexterity in the OR. Plus, he said he doesn’t really own much cold weather gear, so he thought a scarf would be useful.”

Cassie nodded as she kept eating, but Sienna wasn’t done.

“I know it’s not my business if you guys are dating or just friends with benefits or something else, but I really do think you guys are pretty well suited, and I just like him.”

She looked so genuine, her eyes wide and earnest as she looked at Cassie. So Cassie just smiled, “Yeah, me too.”


End file.
